This hard-drive media player will play (and record) just about all your media anywhere. It's also the winner of Best of Show in the Best of CES 2003 competition.

LAS VEGAS -- Archos introduced its modular Video AV140, a 40GB hard drive media player that plays MP3, MPEG-4 video, and JPEG images. Nothing outrageous here, we've seen these features in Archos's months-old Multimedia Jukebox 20. What's new is the uber-gadget's ability to record video directly into MPEG- 4 format with a $50 add-on attachment.

Yes, that's high quality MPEG-4 recording on the fly. Other similar devices exist but they don't have the hard-drive capacity to make the feature truly useful. (The one exception to this is RCA's sweetly designed Lyra RD2780, which features a huge 3.5-inch LCD and a 20GB hard drive. Unfortunately, RCA did not enter the Best of CES competition.)

Plug and play and record

Simply connect the AV140 to a TV or a DVD player using a composite or S-Video cable and record hours of MPEG-4 video into an eye-pleasing resolution of 640x352 at 30 fps. Then play it back on the 1.5-inch color LCD or better yet, pipe the video out to a television. The MPEG-4 recording-on-the-fly capabilities coupled with the massive 40GB drive turns an already stacked player into the ultimate portable video recorder.

The AV140 also records audio into MP3 (up to 160 Kbps), can store up to 400,000 photos, is compatible with DivX, and includes a USB 2.0 port for blazing transfer speeds. And of course, it acts as a portable hard drive.

What makes the AV140 unique is the option to add peripherals such as a still or video camera, an FM tuner, and a CompactFlash card reader. If you're into digital media, the AV140 is the answer.

Company: Archos
Price: $449.99; $49.99 for the video input module
Available: Q2 2003
Specs: 4.3 inches by 3.1 inches by 1.1 inches; 10.23 ounces; rechargeable Li-Ion batteries